


Take a Bullet

by durinsreign



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Angst, Dying Nori, Hurt No Comfort, Implied Deaths, M/M, Protective Dwalin, Vampire Nori, Vampires, Werewolf Dwalin, Werewolves, just pain, vampire/werewolf, werewolf shifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24147886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/durinsreign/pseuds/durinsreign
Summary: Whoever had fired that gun had better run, because Dwalin would let nothing stop him from making the man who did this suffer.
Relationships: Dwalin/Nori (Tolkien)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Take a Bullet

**Author's Note:**

> We had the idea of vampire!nori and werewolf!dwalin, but I turned it into angst.
> 
> Thank you to everyone that beta read and helped me edit this! 
> 
> For NG <3

Nori grabbed his hands with uncertainty, soft, milky skin pressed tightly to Dwalin's furred arms. Only when his eyes had focused on him did Dwalin see the fear that encased him. The noise outside got louder, the werewolf's nose crinkled at the deep, mellow scents of torch fire that led a mob toward the cozy cabin they called _home_. 

"Dwalin," Nori's voice shook as he spoke, his nails digging into Dwalin's palms in a strangely comforting manner. "Go."

Frantically looking around the tousled cabin, Dwalin's eyes settled on the back door. He would not leave here without Nori in tow. If they ran, they could make it, he thought. The woods were endless and it was rare for the men to venture very deep anyway. Especially in the dark, when the ominous howls and sounds of twigs snapping and leaves cracking became far louder than they should be.

Dwalin's hands squeezed Nori's in return, his expression softening the longer he gazed at him. Then, he began to coax the vampire toward the back door. Not the only other exit, but a reliable one. It was only then when the banging started, hollers, fists, and weapons hitting the doors and windows, trying to get in.

"We can both make it." Dwalin insisted, starting to pull Nori again. But the vampire had planted his heels into the wood flooring and let go of him, looking heartbroken.

"I've drawn breath—"

"No… we are _not_ doing this, Nori."

"... for thousands of years, Dwalin. I have been alive for centuries—" he choked back a sob. "... and it took you to make me want to live it." Nori looked up toward Dwalin in tears, knife grey eyes pleading into gunmetal blue ones. "Take me. Take me somewhere only we know." 

It was more of a beg. The vampire's hands were cold against his burning skin. He was scared, Dwalin could hear it in his voice; see it even in the way his lips trembled as he spoke.

A crash—.

Shattered glass fell into contact with all that was beneath it, causing both beings to wince. The deafening boom of a gunshot followed, and for a moment, Dwalin braced himself for the bullet.

But it never came.

Nori froze, eyes wide with horror, his mouth rigid and open, chalky face gaunt and immobile. The scream tore through him like a great shard of glass. His pulse quickened, heart thudding like a rock rattling in a box. Dwalin had never heard anything like it: a scream held behind thousand-year-old vocal chords, erupting from the vampire's entire body, desperate, terrified... human. 

Time seemed to stand still as Nori collapsed against Dwalin and wheezed with a gaping mouth. 

When Dwalin looked up, there was smashed glass on the worn, wooden floorboards of their cabin, glittering everywhere like stars. The faint smoke from the gun that stuck in through the jagged hole in the window brought the unpleasant scent of burnt gunpowder.

Realization had slowly settled and the start of a snarl had worked its way to the back of Dwalin's throat. Whoever had fired that gun had better run, because Dwalin would let nothing stop him from making the man who did this suffer. Nori had quite literally just taken a bullet for him, and he would be damned if he let it happen again.

Gathering him in his arms, Dwalin cradled Nori's head into his chest for safekeeping, shielding him, almost. He could, if he wanted to — and he really wanted to —, curl around the vampire if only to protect him with his own body. 

Dwalin could feel it, like a tickling that stemmed beneath his skin; it was the ache in his bones as they began to shift and deform themselves. His dry lips parted to let out the smallest of whimpers, the strain in his muscles quickly occupying his senses.

For someone who had never had to worry about time, Nori was running rather fast against the clock that would bring his doom. Immortality was a curse to the end of all days, if Nori had any say. But now, Nori wished more than anything for time to stop, so he could lie here in Dwalin's arms for eternity; so he didn't have to spend his last moments in agonizing pain, watching the image of Dwalin fade to nothing.

The bullet felt as if it scorched him from inside out. It burned Nori like a furious fire inside him that would never die. He wished it would have faded away to an icy numbness already, that black would fill the edges of his vision and put an end to his long life if it meant this pain would leave and never return.

He felt Dwalin carefully place him on the floor, beside the bed they shared, where he would hopefully be safe from all that would happen on the other side. What touched his temple wasn't the lips of a man he adored, but the muzzle of a wolf as it grew painfully from his lover's skull.

It was supposed to be a kiss, one that sent indirect proclaims of love and devotion for eternity, if only they were able to grasp the gift of life for such time. Nori didn't think they would make it through this. 

Not this time.

The wolf that leapt back into the center of the single-roomed cabin was still half turned. The beast's jaws opened and a mannish scream erupted from its throat; a scream that communicated the agony in which the creature endured during this stage of reshaping.

He was a freak of nature, something supernatural, a _monster_.

He walked like his limbs didn't really belong to him, each step a negotiation rather than an order. The pressure of Nori's life and his own, the angry shouts from outside, and the scents of fire to burn him had begun to overload Dwalin's senses. 

Adrenaline had finally caught up with him, and before he could so much as blink, the wolf had flung a table toward the furthest window in the building. It was not him, not Dwalin, not anymore. 

The beast was hungry, so hungry, its disposition plagued with bloodlust and blind anger towards anything that moved. That was when the wolf made for the window, the glass bursting into the crowd behind it. 

The townspeople gasped in horror. Now faced with a giant of a wolf, its mouth lined with teeth sharp as knives, and eyes that pierced like the very spikes they tried to kill it with, the gunmen shook with unsteady aim, not even able to bring themselves to pull the trigger. 

Oh, how the tables had turned.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments appreciated!


End file.
